What have we done?

According to a press release today from Zogby International, George W. Bush’s national job approval rating has bellied out at an all time low of 30 percent.

That’s right. A die-hard 30 percent of Americans think that he’s doing a good job.

From the other 70 percent you can almost hear the words, a hushed, quavery whisper that’s echoing across the nation, north and south, east and west,

“What have we done?”

Faced yesterday with the Iraq Study Group report, a realistic, grim and damning assessment of his personal war of aggression against Iraq, Bush thinned his lips, flipped his Daddy’s fixers the bird and got snotty with reporters.

“Mr. President, the Iraq Study Group described the situation in Iraq as 'grave and deteriorating'. You said that the increase in attacks is 'unsettling'. That won't convince many people that you're [not] still in denial about how bad things are in Iraq, and question your sincerity about changing course."

That observation came from Nick Robinson of the BBC during a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

“It’s bad in Iraq,” snapped Bush. He paused. “Does that help?”

He went on to say “I also believe we're going to succeed. I believe we'll prevail. Not only do I know how important it is to prevail, I believe we will prevail. I understand how hard it is to prevail. But I also want the American people to understand that if we were to fail -- and one way to assure failure is just to quit, is not to adjust, and say it's just not worth it -- if we were to fail, that failed policy will come to hurt generations of Americans in the future.”

In case the ISG and the BBC and the American people haven’t noticed yet, Bush is The Decider. He’s the Commander in Chief. Having listened to God’s voice, presumably rumbling in his gut, he means what he says and says what he means – and he has no intention of heeding much, if any of the advice contained in the report.

Because, you know, the only way we lose in Iraq is if we don’t get the job done.

When asked if we were winning the war in Iraq during his confirmation hearing in the Senate this week, Robert Gates, who’s taking up the thankless job of Secretary of Defense from the arrogant and boneheaded Donald Rumsfeld, said, “No, sir.”

This was a smart answer. Anything else would have been an obvious prevarication. They’d have chased him out right out of the chambers and he’d never been heard from again.

What a damned shame we can’t do the same with George W. Bush. On Oct. 25 during a press conference in the East Room at the White House, a reporter asked him, “Mr. President, are we winning?”

“Absolutely, we’re winning,” he said.

In 2004, a bare majority of the American people reelected George Bush as the President of the United States. He called it a “mandate.”

Listen, you can hear them.

“What have we done?”

As of this week, more than 2,900 American soldiers have died in Iraq; soon Bush’s vanity war will have killed as many Americans as Osama’s terror attacks did in 2001. It’s a shameful milestone. Thousands upon thousands more have been grievously injured. Iraqi deaths and casualities are in the hundreds of thousands, the vast majority of them civilian non-combatants.

And this is all while we still have yet to discover what possible benefit there is to waging this war – the Iraqis are lost in a civil war of sectarian violence while our troops huddle in their fortified camps and bunkers, trying not to get caught in the crossfire.

Bush has never come up with a reasonable answer to “Why are we fighting this war?”

The war’s cost in taxpayer dollars and national treasure is up to about $348 billion. The rumor is that early next year, the Bush administration will ask Congress for $180 billion more in “emergency funds.”

The cost in America’s reputation and standing in the world is beyond estimation and will take decades to repair.

“Wait a minute, let me say -- the ultimate accountability, Peter, rests with me. That's the ultimate -- you're asking about accountability, that's -- rests right here,” said Bush during the Oct. 25 press conference. “It's what the 2004 campaign was about. If people want to -- if people are unhappy about it, look right to the President.”

We are, Mr. Bush. You are our national shame, and we’re finally, finally noticing.

“What have we done?”